Time of the Shadows
by riv otter
Summary: The cores are destroyed. Dash and Penny are dead. Sparks is now left with their child to take care of. With Fireback still in the background and his plans unknown Sparks and Sparky will have to keep an ear out in order to keep themselves safe. With dark and light magic becoming a problem to use other powers and magic will rise and blanket the common and once powerful magic.
1. prologue

Prologue

_"They were in my thoughts again last night. Scouter, Dash, and Penny. Maybe it was because I killed an oshawott earlier that I thought of them. I wonder if I could change what has happened to them. If I were to change one thing; one unit; one idea that I would be able to save them all. It's nice to have my sis back with me again. I'm glad I didn't kill her in the little fights we had. I almost did. Almost. I had many chances to do so. That bastard Fireback controlling her for his own use. He also used Dash and Penny and Scouter and me. He used us all! I'm going to kill him! But... but... I have other things to take care of._

_This egg... it is pretty... It brings back many memories of my family before... that event... Dash and Penny would have been very excited to take care of this egg. It is theirs any ways. I wished it was them to take care of this kid. I don't mind taking care of him or her but a kid with out their parent is like a seed with out the right soil and water to grow...it'll struggle to survive. I want to raise their kid like my own. They told me not to use dark magic on them so I'll listen to them there. In fact won't teach the kid any dark magic. I won't let Sparky teach the kid light magic either. I wonder if the kid will be a snivy or an oshawott. I wonder if this egg is a male or a female. What will I call him or her? What name should I give it? I really can't give it a name until I know if the egg is a snivy or an oshawott and if it's a boy or a girl. Sparky has been wanting to look after the egg and help take care of it too but... I've been keeping the egg away from her. I just can't trust her enough to look after the egg... after all it was me Dash and Penny asked to look after the egg. If Sparky was to break the egg then it would be my fault for allowing her to look after it. Sparky was being controlled by Fireback and well... it would be very easy for him to control her again since he has broken through once. So if she had the egg and he controlled her... there's no telling what he'll do with the egg._

_I wonder why he destroyed both cores. What is he planning? He completed his goal but what else does he have plan? My dark magic has been going crazy... Sparky also having problems with her magic. If we're having problems then others must be having problems. Our magic is fluctuating in power... Sometimes our magic is very powerful and not have any cost no matter how powerful the magic used is but then suddenly the most simple magic, like reading a message sent by magic, can cause a deadly cost. Many who have their lives built around magic have died because they couldn't adjust and limit their magic usage or it was just bad timing. I almost died using magic but luckily I only lost most of my energy and I was able to recovered. Sparky was able to take care of me during that time. I thank her for that. Fireback knows light magic and he's very good with it so why would he destroy the cores that would weaken himself? What does he know that I don't know? I feel that we will figure out in time... and when I do... I will have to be prepared for what ever he throws at me. Whatever he is planning, it isn't very good... It involves something else... that even I don't know. Something more powerful than light or dark magic... Fireback wouldn't give up light magic unless he gains something more powerful than the magic it's self. What are you planning Fireback? What are you doing? What are you trying to do?_

_Out of all those theories of what will happen if the cores were to be destroyed, not of them are exactly correct. Reality has a funny way of working like that. Magic wasn't totally disabled like many had thought but we can't use it as often in fear of getting a huge cost. From what I see right now, the land isn't going to be destroyed from the destruction of the cores. The weather hasn't really change. The land isn't dying. I guess those cores weren't as important to the land as we were led to believe. Many are still in a panic though as the word spreads and others around them die from using magic. They're just ignorant and fearing the future. The land isn't going to die or be destroyed by the cores being destroyed but maybe the cores destruction was just a step for Fireback... but is he trying to destroy the land? What is he doing? Maybe he is trying to put a lot of us in chaos or a like state to try to blind us from what he is truly trying to do... I know it worked on Sparky somewhat... She is fearful of what will happen. Me on the other paw, I'm not afraid of him or what he's doing. What ever he is doing, I'll need to take care of this egg and worry about what he's doing later... unless he tries to lay a hand on Sparky or Dash's and Penny's kid... then he'll be my main target for my next knife to hit but for now, my knifes will take out any one who gets in my way. _

_Maybe killing that oshawott earlier is what is reminding me of them. Blah. Dash and Scouter knew good and well not to get in the way of me once I had my mind set on something. Penny... well I'm not sure about her. We never truly met. Of course I don't really care too much about her. I can't care and weep about everyone who dies around me since I see death a lot. Mostly caused be me of course. I'll do my best to keep death away from the kid however with death all around us I won't be able to cover it up all the time Especially with my record. I will kill again. There's no questioning that. Who will I kill exactly? I'm not sure but at least I don't go around killing for no reason. Some may say I do but I have my reasons. Some will call them selfish reasons but truly I'm just surviving. Plus there is no such thing as a selfless act so what I do compared to what others do are both guilty of being selfish. Even taking care of Dash's and Penny's egg is selfish in some way. It brings back great memories of times before all this. It makes me happy... of course happy about the past but temporary happiness for the present._

_Well... this egg is in my hands and I will take care of it even after it hatches. Fireback will have to worried about afterwards or until he shows his ugly face. His blood is missing on my sharp knifes. I Sparks will be the end of him."_


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Hatching

The sun slowly rises above the horizon to relieve the land of the darkness. The last of the late night creatures hide from the light. The warmth of the late spring sun warms the furs, feathers, and scales of the waking pokemon. Sparks wakes up to the warmth of the sun and the sounds of all the morning creatures that like to sing in the morning. Sparks sits up with the egg nesting next to him away from Sparky who is on the other side of him. He listens for a few minutes to the music of the forest. Sometimes the music was pretty and beautiful and other times it was eerie. Every new day that sun rises is a new song from the forest. Today the music was nice and uplifting probably because of the nice warmth from the sun.

Sparks stands up and looks at Sparky and the egg. He slowly walks out with an uneasy feeling of leaving Sparky and the egg alone but hunger got the better of him. Sparks hadn't eaten for a few days due to stress of Sparky and the egg. Sparky still acts like a little child and it scares Sparks what damage she could do to the egg in her ignorance. No matter how many times she said that she would be careful and he could take a break and let her take care of the egg but Sparks can't find himself to trust her to take care of the egg. Although hunger forced Sparks to leave and get food. Sparks walks on the familiar path but this time, he doesn't have his knifes in hand which he hasn't done in a while.

Sparky wakes up without her brother being around. She rubs her eyes while looking around the room. She spots the lonely egg on the other side of the nest. Without any hesitation she crawls to the egg. She carefully pokes the egg. The egg rolls softly on its side. Sparky carefully picks up the heavy egg and sets the egg on her lap. She examines the egg. "This is a pretty big egg for a snivy to lay," Sparky commented to herself. "I still barely remember Penny and Dash. Sparks told me some of the things about Dash, even though their time together was really short. He also talked about Scouter a lot more than Dash. Scouter was around Sparks longer than Dash. That was apparent. He told me that I killed them. Although deep down I know he knows that I was being controlled and that it wasn't my fault but it still hurts." Sparky sighs, " I know that he is sort of loss without them, and I feel terrible that I was involved, but was I truly involved? Sparks is different from when I last remember. He would trust me with everything, he would comfort me, protect me, and we would always be happy no matter what happened as long as we were together... What happened to that? I guess times have changed when I was gone... He scares me now. I worry that he'll kill himself over this egg. Why does he care for it so much? It seems like he cares the egg more than me." Sparky stares at the innocent egg. "If this egg wasn't here, Sparks wouldn't have to destroy himself for the egg..." Sparky stops to think deeply about what she just said. She sighs, "I can't do that... it's not fair to the egg." She sets the egg back to where she grabbed it. Sparky stares outside away from the rising sun. The egg rolls on its side again a few minutes later. Sparky, so deep in thought, doesn't even notice the movement of the egg. Sparky's ear twitches as a little noise is heard from the egg. Sparky looks at the egg questioning whether what she heard was from the egg. She passes it off as something else but a few minutes later another little noise this time more like a squeaky cry is heard from the egg. Sparky carefully and nervously watches the egg.

Sparks walks in to a visibly uncomfortable Sparky staring at the egg. Sparks picks up the egg protectively and looks at Sparky and asks, "What did you do? Did you touch the egg?"

Sparky shakes her head no nervously.

"I know you're lying Sparky. You do the same thing when you lie, even now."

Sparky sighs and said, "Yeah I touched it... I got curious."

"Okay... it's fine.. the egg looks okay" Sparks words may seem innocent and calm but his look towards Sparky said, "_Don't you ever touch the egg again._"

Sparky silently looks at the egg wondering if she should tell Sparks what she had experienced. Sparks looks at Sparky trying to read what she is thinking, trying to figure out if she is leaving out any information. Sparks with a calm voice said, "You know you can tell me anything. You don't have to lie to me."

Sparky stays silent.

"Why did you feel like you needed to lie to me?"

Sparky doesn't answer.

Sparks, getting a little annoyed at this point asks, "What are you hiding?"

Sparky looks at Sparks with a blank look, "Nothing. Nothing at all." Sparky goes back to looking at the egg.

Sparks thinks whether or not Sparky is telling the truth or not. She was acting very strange. Sparks sets the egg down away from Sparky. Sparky looks at Sparks as he pulls out a knife. Sparks sits there for a few minutes thinking with Sparky staring at him. "Sparky, Is that really you?"

Sparky is shocked and confused by the question. She answers, "Of course."

"You sure that Fireback is not controlling you right now?"

"Sparks, look at me brother. Do I look like I'm being controlled?"

Sparks examines Sparky, "No, but I didn't know you were being controlled by Fireback last time."

"Sparks... when Fireback controlled me, he took me away from you and towards him so he could use me more. He also took me away so you wouldn't know. He's smart Sparks, but he's no me."

Sparks doesn't reply to his sister. Before the next word came from either one of them, Sparks feels the egg move. Sparks looks at the egg. He notices a little crack in the egg that wasn't there last time. Sparks smiles.

"What are you smiling about?" Sparky asks.

"Oh... this egg won't be an egg very soon. Soon we'll know the little one hiding in this shell."

Sparky becomes slightly excited. She has never seen an egg hatch in her life. Sparks on the other hand, has seen a hatching one other time.

Both Sparks and Sparky sit there looking at the for about an hour, not realizing the fast moving time around.

Finally Sparks said, "It must be resting."

"Maybe he or she needs help getting out of the egg." Sparky said as she reaches for the egg.

Sparks hits her hand away. "No, give it time. Getting out of an egg is hard work."

"Why do you call the baby it?"

"Because we don't know the gender and the exact form it'll be."

Sparky folds her arms, "But it makes you seem like you don't care about the egg. It's like you're calling the egg an object. Isn't this more than an object to you?"

Sparks stares at the egg for a moment, "Just because I call the egg an 'it', doesn't mean I don't care about it, it's the common society's view that makes it seem like that. It's not that I don't care, it's yours and everyone else perception that says I don't care about the egg because of my choices. You and everyone around will assume that I don't care about the egg and you all would group up and take it away from me."

Sparky surprised at how the conversation turned quickly replies with, "I wasn't saying that you didn't care about the egg... but just calling the egg 'it' makes it seem like you don't care but I know you care dearly about the egg and I would never take the egg from you."

Sparks doesn't reply to Sparky's answer. Sparks turns away from Sparky and lays down with the egg in front of him.

Sparky looks down and sighs. The air between them remains still for the next few minutes. Sparky finally breaks the stillness by asking, "Why don't you kick me out?"

Sparks doesn't answer nor move.

Sparky looks over at Sparks breathing body. She goes silent... listening. Trying to hear all that she can. Sparks makes a little snoring noise. Sparky lays down and faces the other way. With hundreds of thoughts racing through her mind about Sparks and the egg. Slowly, the tiredness slows her thoughts and she finally falls asleep.

Sparky dreams of a time before Fireback. Before the events. Before the control. Before the egg. It was a very nice dream for her. It helped ease some of her thoughts and some of her worries.

Sparky wakes up from her deep sleep by a hard poke on her back. It actually kind of hurt a little. "What do you want Sparks?" she asked with out even looking. She hears movement behind her but the footsteps were not as heavy as Sparks. "_Who could this be?_" Sparky thought. Sparky slowly turns towards the sound and sees a little blue snivy going through the many materials of the nest. Sparky looks at Sparks who, of course, was asleep through this. Sparky slowly stands, and sneaks up on the little snivy and she quickly grabs the snivy scaring the little one to death. The snivy begins to cry very loudly waking up Sparks. Sparks looks at Sparky holding the little crying snivy. Sparks quickly gets up and lightly grabs the snivy. He sits down and slowly rocks the snivy. The snivy slowly stops the crying and she looks at Sparks. Sparks smiles at the little snivy and the snivy smiles back. Sparky looks at Sparks and asks, "Who is that?"

Sparks, still rocking the snivy said, "This is what came out of the egg."

Sparky looks at the little snivy, then looks at the shattered egg. "Oh... I thought it was someone trying to loot our stuff."

"Come on Sparky. Someone this small and this young trying to loot stuff?"

"Yeah, I guess it was kind of dumb... Aren't snivy suppose to be green? This snivy is blue. Maybe she's sick."

Sparks rolls his eyes. "She got her blue from the oshawott."

Sparky looks at Sparks, "I thought that the child only gets characteristics from the mother."

Sparks looks at the snivy then towards Sparky, "Well if we were tamed then yes, because humans are very selective on what they want from breeding us pokemon, but in the wild the selective traits depends on survival. That's why you'll rarely see what humans call 'shiny pokemon' because their traits make it hard to survive and they are highly demanded to humans. The fact is, we should keep this little one away from the humans. We need to make her afraid of them. Otherwise she'll be caught by them and I can only imagine what it's like to be in one of those balls. Her blue color will be hard for her to hide from predators and humans. The green for a snivy made it great for them to hide in trees against the leaves. This little one got the blueness of the oshawott which for oshawott is great for hiding in the water and with snivy usually being poor swimmers, the blue probably isn't going to help her hide at all. She'll need to be smarter and more alert then the average snivy. Otherwise she won't have a very long life."

Sparky looks at Sparks, "Maybe she would be safer with humans, since being in the wild is so deadly for her."

"It's deadly for all of us but I understand where you're coming from. It really depends on the human(s) that take care of her on whether or not she'll be happy or not. She'll need lots of attention and lots of love. A human that will let her outside and exercise her, whether that would be by playing with her or use her in a battle. Not just battling though... Some of the faces on the pokemon that are only used for fighting are not very pretty. Just imagine that the only time you get to see the sun, feel the wind, feel the warmth, the only time you get to feel that is when you have to fight. That would be terrible. That's why I just don't trust humans in general."

"Sparks... me and you both know that that's not the only reason... That you have something deeper against humans."

"You're right Sparky, but I'd rather not talk about it."

"I understand..." Sparky looks at the snivy, "So what are we going to name her?"

This had barely crossed Sparks mind. He didn't think he would have the egg for when it hatched. "I'm not sure... I didn't even get that far in her life yet."

"I see well I guess it's something we don't need to rush it but we should come up with something soon."

"Agreed and it needs to be perfect."

"Agreed."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Naming Process

Sparks had been spending most of his time with the young one. He feeds her, gives her water, plays with her, watches her, protects her, comforts her, and so much more. Sparky is always on the sideline. She never really interacts with the snivy, the only time she does is when the little one interacts with her first but the snivy spends a lot of her time with Sparks. The snivy spends more time with Sparks than Sparky does. This is a little annoying for Sparky, after years of being separated, she feels like they are separated once again. This time by a harmless snivy though. She has never really been outside of the attention. She was the one always being cared for and worried about because she was the young one but now she isn't the young one and Sparks expects her to know exactly what to do. She has never had someone younger than her around her, let alone a new hatchling. This has aliened her a little. She looks at the snivy and finally said hiding how she feels, "We need to name her."

Sparks looks at the little one and said, "Yeah, we really do."

"Any ideas?"

"hmm... not really. It's really hard to find a name for someone that best fits them. I don't want her to fit up to the name. You have any ideas?"

"Well, What about keeping her name at snivy?"

"That's too simple for her. So many parents keep their name as what they are described as. It's the easy way out. You don't need to put much thought into it."

The little snivy followers the speaker with her eyes like she was listening in trying to decide the meaning of the strange language as she lays comfortably in the bedding made of pieces of cushions.

"I understand," Sparky pauses to think, "What about P.J?"

"P.J?"

"Penny junior."

"I don't know." Sparks looks at the snivy, "P.J. just doesn't seem like her."

"What about D.J?"

"Dash junior? No."

"Well what about Flower?"

"Snivy don't have anything to do with a flower."

"Well, they are grass types."

"Yeah but nothing on the snivy says flower to me. You see a flower when you look at the snivy."

Sparky looks at the little one, "No not really. At least I'm trying you're not even trying to throw out any names."

"I'm thinking."

"Are you really? Are you really thinking about a name for her? Or are you thinking and criticizing my names that I come up with?"

Sparks doesn't answer.

"Come on Sparks, say a name for the snivy. No matter how stupid it is. You always try to be so prefect. No one can be prefect. Sometimes we need the stupid ideas to get to the good ideas. Doesn't she deserve her own identity? "

"Yeah."

"Then say a name. Any name."

Sparks stays silent for a minute, eventually he said, "What about Leafy?"

"It's a cute name but for a snivy?"

"True. This naming process is going to take a whole chapter of our and the snivy's life."

"Yeah. I hope it won't be the rest of our story."

"Probably not, you're still pretty young and as long as you're careful you'll have many years ahead of you and we'll be able to think of a name before our stories end."

"Alright, " Sparky looks towards the snivy, "What about Bluey?"

"hmmm... it's an interesting name... better than some of our other ones, but not for the snivy."

Both Sparks and Sparky remain silent for a little. Trying to figure out of a name for the snivy. They look at the snivy and look towards each other then look out in in the distance. The snivy makes eye contact with them every time they look her way.

"We could call her Ivy." Sparky said.

"Seriously... Ivy... the ending of snivy... boy we aren't thinking very hard if that's the best we can come up with."

"We could call her seedling... I guess."

"That name is a cute name. It's a nice name... but she'll probably not like the name when she is grown up."

"hmmm..." Sparky was getting annoyed. Every name she said was shot down by him. "_Was he ever going to accept a name? Did he have this much defiance with his mate naming their kid?_" Sparky thought. "What if we named her snivy?"

"I already told you that snivy is just taking the easy route."

"Let's name her snivy... but not call her snivy."

Sparks looks at Sparky a little confused, "What do you mean?"

"Well many pokemon in this region don't realize that Tsutarja is another name they call snivy in another region. I guess you can argue that it's still being lazy but, it's definitely different for the area."

Sparks stays silent thinking about the name. Sparky waits to hear the answer that Sparks is going to give. The snivy stands up and slowly walks to Sparks. Sparks looks at the snivy. "You must be hungry no?"

"Sni!" The snivy speaks excitedly.

Sparks smiles grabs the blue oran berry and hands it to the snivy, "So how do you like the name Tsutarja?"

The snivy giggles as she munches on the berry.

Sparks looks at Sparky, "I think naming her Tsutarja is a great idea."

Sparky looks relieved that they finally have a name for the snivy. "They could right a book on just us trying to name this little grass type."

"Come on Sparky, it wasn't that long. It was only like forty-five minutes ."

"Yeah but it felt like they could right a book on it."

"What you think and what is realty are usually very different."

"Yeah I guess... well Tsutarja it is."

The snivy looks up at Sparky towards the sound her name being said.

Sparks examines this and said, "I think she's already getting to know her name." 


End file.
